There's a different kind of drug war going on that doesn't get the kind
of attention as the one in the streets of America. In fact, those who
are involved in a massive program of drug distribution are highly regarded
and very well paid. They are our nation's teachers and the legions of
"counselors" who have invaded our schools. Their victims, like
the street drug pusher, are the children who will be returning to school
after Labor Day.

Ritalin: And your kids don't even have to see "those
people" to get their drugs

With considerable irony, many of these children will pass signs on their
way to school that proudly declare that they are entering "a drug-free
zone." The only problem is that twelve percent of all American boys
between six and 14 have been diagnosed with "attention deficit"
syndrome. They all take medications that share the same characteristics
as methamphetamine and cocaine. They and others add up to an estimated
seven million school children who are doped up to the eyeballs in this
manner.

Other medications are prescribed for yet another syndrome called "hyper-activity."
This can constitute nothing more than being fidgety or noisy.

It really doesn't matter what kind of behavior a child displays in class.
If a teacher thinks they are a problem for any reason, the Diagnostic
and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) published by the American
Psychiatric Association, has a list of more than 300 syndromes that easily
cover the situation. Twenty years ago, the DSM only listed just over a
hundred syndromes. Apparently, the entire nation is filled with crazed
children and adults, all requiring sedation.

The truth, as many parents discover to their horror, is that since 1965
the role of the teacher as the dispenser of discipline in the classroom
has ceased. Children no longer are concerned about any rules of behavior
because any real discipline is virtually non-existent in our schools.
It has been replaced with parents who prefer a good lawsuit to a well-behaved
child.

Then, too, teaching methods have changed dramatically downgrading the
teacher to a mere "facilitator" who allows students to learn
on their own or be taught by others in their classroom.

The result is schools that are more like psychiatric hospital wards than
places where one can actually learn anything. Thus, the need to drug any
child who can't be conventionally controlled or the child who cannot concentrate
sufficiently due, as often as not, to the distractions of unruly students.

The situation has long since become so bad that in 2000 there were lawsuits
filed in California and New Jersey accusing Novartis Pharmaceuticals of
conspiring to create a "novel medical diagnosis" (attentional
deficit hyperactivity disorder) and then cashing in on it thanks to the
fear it created among parents. The drug of choice is Ritalin. When ADHPD
became an official disorder in 1987, there has been an explosion of prescriptions.
In 1995, physicians wrote six million Ritalin prescriptions for children
and adolescents.

Last year, in testimony before congress by the US Drug Enforcement Administration
it was revealed that Ritalin has the potential to cause psychological
and physical dependence. To put it another way, addiction!

After a child has been on Ritalin for awhile, trying to get him or her
off the medication can lead to "apathy, long periods of sleep, irritability,
depression, and disorientation." Hallucinations, convulsions, and
even death can result from an overdose.

Speaking for the DEA, however, Rogene Waite said that Ritalin is still
considered safe when prescribed for medical reasons. The only problem
is that teachers are not physicians, nor are school counselors, the people
most likely to "spot the problem" and move it up the chain of
command until mom and dad are told their child needs to be drugged.

The other "side affect" of Ritalin and comparable drugs such
as Prozac, is the fact that virtually all of the students who showed up
at school and began shooting their classmates and the occasional teacher
were taking these drugs.

Eric Harris of Columbine High School fame was taking Luvoc, an antidepressant.
T.J. Solomon who wounded six classmates at Heritage High School was on
Ritalin. Shawn Cooper who fired off two shotgun rounds in Notus, Idaho,
was also on Ritalin. Kip Kinkel was on both Ritalin and Prozac!

Even parents who want to get their child off of these so-called treatments
find they are often blocked by the school bureaucracy. When Jill and Michael
Carroll of Albany, NY, grew fearful of the side affects of Ritalin on
their seven-year-old son, the Department of Social Services filed charges
against them for educational neglect! They were told their son could be
taken away from them unless they complied. This isn't an isolated case;
it goes on all the time.

The parent who finds their child targeted for mandatory drugging needs
to be prepared to fight back with every resource at their disposal. It
used to be the worst thing that might happen to your kid at school was
a scraped knee.

Today's schools are now places where your child can be found to be suffering
from any one of a laundry list of so-called psychological syndromes and
required to join the millions of others on a drug program that may keep
things humming in the classroom, but may also produce long-term mental
and psychological damage.